If you have been to Tokyo, in particular Tokyo Station, you would probably have seen this row of shops from the major TV stations i.e. FujiTV, TBS, NTV, TV Asahi and TV Tokyo which sells official merchandise of their TV programmes. NHK also has its own shop in the same underground mall although it is not located within this cluster. As the shops are lined up side-by-side in the same row at the Yaesu side of the station, it will be hard for anyone to miss them. What's good about having these shops here is that you don't have to travel all the way to the various TV stations to purchase these official merchandise because their headquarters are located at different areas of Tokyo i.e. FujiTV in Odaiba, TBS in Akasaka, NTV in Shiodome, TV Asahi in Roppongi. Most people would be at Tokyo Station to make transfers or take the Shinkansen etc so the location is very convenient and customer traffic is definitely a boost factor as to why these shops are located here. In fact, there are usually too many people that it can get difficult just trying to enter these shops at times.
For fans of anime, you will be thrilled to note that in the majority of these shops, they carry a higher proportion of goods related to anime programmes. However, that doesn't mean that you won't get to see drama-related goods in these shops. The range of products though is subject to availability, the promotional strategy of the TV stations and the timing of your visit.
As I was there during December, I saw merchandise of "Nobunaga Concerto" and "First Class" (which were still on-air at that time) and "Orient Kyuukou Satsujin Jiken" (which is due to be shown during the Seijinshiki holidays). Then again, the range of products for each title tends to vary too. "Orient Kyuukou" only had its notepad being displayed while there were notebooks and folders displayed for the Autumn 2014 dramas. In addition, I noticed the absence of goods from other dramas from the Autumn 2014 season i.e. "Subete ga F ni naru", "Suteki na Sentakushi" and "Dear Sister" which may or may not be related to their performance in terms of critical reviews or ratings. Given the limited space in the shop, I wouldn't be surprised if the TV stations choose to stock its shops with the merchandise from the titles they deem more popular. It would also be natural for a full-length drama series to have a wider range of goods as compared to a drama SP.
On the other hand, you have HERO 2's goods being displayed prominently in the store i.e. stationery such as notepads, folders, badges and snacks such as manju even though it had ended more than 3 months ago. Seems like after the success of the Hanzawa Naoki manju when it had long snaking queues of people waiting to lay their hands on it at the peak of its popularity, many TV stations are making their versions of confectionery snacks such as manju for their dramas. Perhaps the success of HERO 2 in terms of its ratings was the key reason why it took up so much space on the shelves but I would have wanted to see a wider range of goods from various drama titles rather than have one title dominate the shelves. Comparatively, the shop at FujiTV's HQ had a wider range of goods which included stuff from older dramas so I'll talk more about that when I come to my review of my tour there. If you are keen to check out the TV stations' shops in Tokyo Station, be prepared to see that there might not be goods from your favourite dramas especially if it's not doing very well in terms of ratings or is an old title.
I will be introducing the other TV stations' shops progressively so do stay tuned for those posts coming your way soon!
